1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention generally relate to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a user stores and manages resources of a computer themselves, and utilizes various functions using the resources. In recent years, such a function has been increasingly utilized using the Internet and a fee is paid according to its use. Offer of the function is referred to as provision of a service. Offer of the function using the Internet is referred to as provision of a cloud service. The cloud service that has already been implemented includes a scan service and an online storage service.
In the scan service, an external computer performs various types of processing when an image (scan data) read by an image reading apparatus is converted into an image file. According to the scan service, a high-value image file (a high-compression portable document format (PDF), a PDF that has been subjected to optical character reader (OCR) processing (OCRed), etc.) can be generated without depending on the capability of the image reading apparatus and resources.
According to the online storage service, a file such as a document can be stored in a storage of an external computer (an external storage) instead of a user's computer. A user can freely read and write the file from and to an allocated disk space by accessing the external storage via the Internet.
The cloud services enable the user to convert scan data into an image file having a desired data format and store the image file in the external storage without a complicated function provided in the image reading apparatus.
The scan service and the online storage service are, for example, used in cooperation with each other such that the external computer can store an image read by the image reading apparatus as a high-value image file in the external storage. However, when the image read by the image reading apparatus is stored as the image file in the external storage, a position (a storage area) for storing the image file needs to be previously designated. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-169065 discusses a method for designating a storage area after an image reading apparatus reads a document.
However, in the conventional technique, it can be determined whether the storage area can store the image file in the image reading apparatus only after scanning is executed. Therefore, it is possible that the image file may not be stored in the storage area in which the user desires to store the image file.
In recent years, the online storage service has been usable from the image reading apparatus. However, whether scan data, an image file, or the like can be stored in the external storage from the image reading apparatus depends on a function of the image reading apparatus. Even if the image file can be stored in the storage area where the image file is desirably stored, the external storage needs to be designated from the image reading apparatus according to the conventional technique. If the storage area stores the image file at a hierarchically deep place, the designation of the storage area becomes complicated.